Manual:Professional Development:Written Communication

Common Ideas in Written Communication
Below are two common and important ideas that one needs to keep in mind when using written communication.

Courtesy
Always be courteous when you write. Self-control and courtesy go hand in hand. Even if you are absolutely sure that someone is deserving of your anger, be courteous anyway. When closing a letter, especially one where you have asked the reader to help you take action on your behalf, thank them for their time and efforts.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best — “Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy”.

Abbreviation and Acronyms
An acronym or abbreviation is a collection of letters that represent a larger or more complex collection of words or phrases. Abbreviations are spelled out when you say them, like using “SFMC” for “STARFLEET Marine Corps”. An acronym is pronounced like some kind of slang word, like using “SNAFU” for “Situation Normal, All Fouled Up”.

It is common practice to list the long form of an abbreviation or acronym the first time it appears in your writ-ing. For example, you may use an acronym like SFMC a lot. The first time you use it in your letter, you should show what it stands for by putting the short form in parenthesis after the long form, like this: “Members of the STARFLEET Marine Corps (SFMC) are prohibited from wearing ribbons issued by the real-world military, whether or not the SFMC member has actually earned the right to do so.”

The exception to this is if the term is so widely recognized it is practically universal (USA, for example) or the person you are writing to obviously knows what it means (it is a safe bet, for example, that the Commandant of the STARFLEET Marine Corps knows what SFMC means...) Be careful, however in assuming that a certain acronym has a single, universal meaning. As an example, although “USA” is most often used to represent “United States of America”, in a different context it might represent “United States Army”.